Essential Oils & Aromatherapy: Your Personal Guide

By Marlene Houghton

In Focus Essential Oils & Aromatherapy is your quick guide to the qualities and healing effects of every major essential oil, including recipes for beauty, home, and health applications. Essential oils have been used for centuries and across many cultures in holistic remedies for all types of common ailments. Extracted from flowers, seeds, plants, and trees, natural oils are applied either topically or aromatically to give healing effects. This artfully designed guide gives you easy access to the information you need to use them effectively. After a detailed summary of each major oil, recipes of specific oil blends for numerous treatments are presented, including helpful hints and tips. With practice, and with In Focus Essential Oils & Aromatherapy in hand, you will be able to understand and use essential oils for countless purposes, including: ·Headaches ·Runny nose ·Allergies ·Common colds ·Cooking ·Perfume ·Deodorizing ·Stain removalThe In Focus series applies a modern approach to teaching the classic body, mind, and spirit subjects. Authored by experts in their respective fields, these beginner's guides feature smartly designed visual material that clearly illustrates key topics within each subject. As a bonus, each book includes reference cards or a poster, held in an envelope inside the back cover, that give you a quick, go-to guide containing the most important information on the subject.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9780760363645

Marlene Houghton

Marlene Houghton PhD has always been interested in natural health therapies, having studied herbalism (phytotherapy), holistic nutrition, and related natural therapies. She has over twenty years of experience working in orthodox medical settings in top London teaching hospitals. She is a nutritional therapist and a traditional herbalist as well as a nutrition consultant for a well-known group of health stores. She regularly contributes articles on traditional herbalism and aromatherapy to Echo World, a mind, body and spirit magazine, and has written three books: An Astrological Apothecary, Simply Herbalism, In Focus: Essential Oils & Aromatherapy.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.

Ezekiel 47:12

Welcome to the fragrant art of aromatherapy. I have been using essential oils for many years for both health and beauty and have found them useful for the prevention and treatment of minor ailments and skin care. The life-enhancing qualities of this holistic system of medicine have provided my family and me with vital protection from colds, coughs, and flu during the winter months, and pleasure when used for skin and body care.

This ancient healing system has become very popular with the general public, and today many women’s magazines carry articles on essential oils and their uses. Aromatherapy has left the fringes and become complementary to mainstream medicine. The aim of this book is to introduce the layperson to the principles of this wonderful therapy so that readers, armed with a broad knowledge of the basics of these essential oils and their application, will be able to gain many health benefits by using the oils for prevention, healing, beauty, and pleasure.

Many aromatherapy books concentrate on women and their health and beauty issues, but I thought it was time that men were also included. I have added a chapter on aromatherapy oils for men, as male skin is not the same as female skin, and men also have to deal with the daily ritual of shaving, which can be associated with a number of skin problems. This information seems to be hard for men to find, and they have been neglected, so I have attempted to put this right. At last there are some valuable tips for men when using aromatherapy that will help them with natural daily grooming. Male readers will recognize the benefits that these aromatic essences will bring to their skin, body, hair, and health when they start to use them, and they will wonder how they ever managed without them.

Aromatherapy Today

This form of ageless medicine used for thousands of years throughout Europe and the Far East has gained popularity in the West. Today it has become one of the most popular and fastest-growing branches of complementary medicine. Researchers and many medical professionals increasingly recognize aromatherapy’s therapeutic value in helping to keep the body, mind, and spirit in harmony. Recognizing the healing properties of essential plant oils, practitioners trained today learn that this healing modality is a gentle holistic therapy that draws its powers from Mother Nature’s plants, flowers, leaves, roots, seeds, fruits, and barks. Used to relieve stress, boost physical and psychological well-being, and improve the health of the immune system, this popular therapy is being used more and more by enlightened practitioners of mainstream medicine although it has not yet been accepted scientifically. The claims made for aromatherapy’s healing effect according to science are not supported by any research or evidence. It is true that most of the evidence in favor of the use of essential oils for healing and prevention is empirical, gathered first-hand over centuries and through observation. The upsurge in interest in this holistic therapy, however, is due to the acceptance by the public of aromatherapy principles and skepticism regarding using only drugs to restore health.

I accept the wisdom of the ancients, and my experience when using these precious essential oils therapeutically has proven to me that they have preventative and restorative value. I think that over 8,000 years of use shows that Mother Nature’s essential oils have withstood the test of time and that these plant oils play a valuable part in the treatment of minor ailments and also health problems that orthodox medicine is unable to cure.

Enclosed Essential Oil Wall Chart

Included in this book is a wall chart that serves as a quick and handy go-to reference guide containing a summary of the major essential oils, their characteristics, and their healing properties from the following pages.

Take Care Never drink any essential oil, whether diluted or not. Oils should be diluted in a carrier or base oil and massaged into the skin, put into bath water, or warmed in a diffuser to fill a room with a specific aroma. Some oils will require a patch test, which involves putting a little of the mixture on one spot on your arm to see if it causes an irritation.

1 HISTORY OF AROMATHERAPY

But Flowers distilled though they with Winter meet, lose but their show, their substance still lives sweet.

William Shakespeare

Aromatherapy is the art of using essential oils for the purpose of restoring balance to the mind, body, and spirit. It is a form of natural healing that goes back more than 8,000 years. Many think that aromatherapy is a New Age therapy, but in fact it is one of the oldest known medicinal therapies. Like all other holistic treatments, it works on the principle that the most effective way to promote health and well-being is to strengthen the immune system, which is critically important to good health. This healing art is also good for stress reduction, as it promotes calm and balance, restoring the body and mind to a state of equilibrium. Aromatherapy treats the whole person: the physical body, the emotions, and the spirit. In this way, harmony is reinstated between this important team that makes up the whole person by bringing each system into alignment.

The application of essential oils for therapeutic purposes can be traced back to all major civilizations. In the ancient world perfumed oils, believed to be sacred, were used in rituals and religious ceremonies. They were also used medicinally by priests/physicians to treat many of the diseases that have afflicted humankind since the beginning of time.

In India this tradition has not been lost, and temples built entirely from sandalwood are still in existence. Ayurveda, the holistic tradition of medicine in India—over 3,000 years old—is practiced by present-day Ayurvedic doctors who still use traditional health care concepts when treating patients. Oil massage treatments for health and well-being are an important holistic therapy in Ayurvedic medicine. For relaxation of the body and mind, skin nourishment, improvement of circulation, and removal of toxins, Ayurveda uses many essential oils to good effect.

Ancient Chinese herbals going back thousands of years describe the use of aromatic woods and herbs that were burnt as offerings to the Gods. The essential oils from plants, barks, roots, leaves, and seeds were also used medicinally by Chinese apothecaries. In 2650 BCE, The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine contained references to these valuable oils.

The ancient Egyptians, regarded as the founders of this healing art, used therapeutic oils in massage, skin care, and medicinally. The High Priests burned heady mixtures made up of spikenard, cinnamon, and other rich and potent ingredients so that the Sun God Ra would return safely in the eastern skies every morning. They also used cedarwood and other aromatic oils for embalming the dead. Cedarwood was the wood of choice for the sarcophagi in which the royal Egyptian mummies were buried. In the Ebers Papyrus, dated 1550 BCE, medicinal formulas were found for various diseases that were treated with inhalations, compresses, and gargles. Essential oils are truly ancient medicine.

In the Middle East, merchants brought back precious spices, cinnamon, ginger, frankincense, and myrrh from their journeys to the Orient. Between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, the Arabs produced many scholars and scientists. An Arabian physician and philosopher born in Persia in 980 CE named Ibn Sina, and known more often as Avicenna, the Prince of Physicians, has been credited with the discovery of distillation, the method most commonly used to obtain the oils. This gifted man of science wrote more than a hundred books, and his book The Canon of Medicine was used by students of medicine for many centuries. One of his books was devoted entirely to the rose, the most valued flower of Islam, whose reavenly and divine fragrance is believed to have permeated the Garden of Allah. Legend has it that the ruby-red damask rose petals were created from a single drop of sweat from the brow of the Prophet.

The Yellow Emperor

Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna

Hippocrates

The classical Greeks used these precious oils in their bath houses for relaxation, hygiene, health, and beauty. Hippocrates, the Greek physician who today is known as the Father of Medicine, advocated the benefits of bathing in warm baths scented with sweet-smelling perfumed oils. Later, the Romans obtained much of their medical knowledge of essential oils from the Greeks and then improved on this knowledge. They were aware of the beneficial properties of these wonderful oils and, apart from using them to treat disease, the Romans—well known for their hedonistic lifestyles—used them for sensual reasons, to enhance sexual desire and uplift and alter mood. Unfortunately, with the fall of the Roman Empire around 410 CE, the use of these valuable oils declined in Europe, probably as the influence of the Church began to get a grip. The Church frowned on pleasure-seeking practices, communal bathing, and using fragrance for beautifying the body, judging them to be sinful and vain. Consequently, the use of these beautiful essential oils, for pleasure and also for use medicinally, fell into decline. The lack of hygiene during the Dark Ages led to the rise of many diseases, and ultimately the plagues in which millions of people died.

During this time, when the bubonic plagues wreaked havoc throughout Europe, herbalist-physicians urged people to use essential oils in an effort to stop the outbreaks from spreading. When they treated their patients, they wore beaked masks filled with cloves, cinnamon, and aromatic spices, believing that breathing the herbal aroma through this beak would protect them. They must have looked terrifying in this hideous outfit, and many of the victims probably died of fright instead of bubonic plague!

These plague-doctors carried sponges soaked in aromatic oils for protection but unfortunately this did not appear to work and thousands died. However, one group of people was protected against these epidemics, and it was not known why. They used what came to be known as Four Thieves Vinegar. It contained many herbs and oils and appeared to provide protection against the infection. The name derived from a story about four thieves who robbed the dead victims of the plague. They doused themselves in this vinegar and mysteriously did not appear to catch this virulent disease that was killing millions. One of the therapeutic ingredients in this vinegar was garlic. Today we know that this pungent,

Reviews for Essential Oils & Aromatherapy

[beammey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

SInce I'm someone quite new to the essential oils trend, this was a great tool for me. Some I knew, but even more I did not. The history of aromatherapy I could particularly intriguing. Then it went through a bunch of the most popular oils and part of the plant that was used, the keyword, aroma, description, uses, and safety. This was beyond helpful and really opened up my eyes a lot to what could possibly work for me and what oils I should be focusing on and what I shouldn't be. It talks about blending, carrier oils, different ways to use them. Just, everything. this is a 5 out of 5 star book for me. A wonderful, educational read.

[sj1335 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book for anyone who has an interest in Aromatherapy. Houghton does an excellent job breaking down the primary oils for the reader. The purchased book includes a wall chart for the different blends and how to use them. She also explains about the different carrier oils to use, I have two diffusers that in my living room and one in my bedroom, believe me, aromatherapy does work. I suffer from depression and at times crippling anxiety and Sandalwood is my oil of choice that I use in my living room, I use it straight by itself in and my husband ever the skeptic has seen how it calms me down and eases my anxieties, I use another blend of Lavender, chamomile and various others in my bedroom at night to help me sleep. Plus my big 65 lb baby who doesn't like thunderstorms benefits from a blend that I use especially for her. She goes into protective mode when we get some Texan thunderstorms, she barks and bristles plus paces the house. I've lived in Texas my whole life and I find our big storms to be the perfect sleeping weather, not so much with Zoe going insane. I talked to my vet and she said that she's read that aromatherapy in the diffuser helps settle some animals down.This is a great book for anyone who wants to get started in Aromatherapy or those like myself who has been practicing the art for the past 30 years. I find something new in every book I read regarding essential oils. Disclosure: I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for granting my wish by providing with a copy of this galley in exchange for my honest review. The opinions I expressed above are my own.